By adding a touch of science, but losing none of its usual flair, the fourth annual Gender Week is again bringing a wide array of speakers, movies and events, starting on Monday.
"Gender Matters IV" concentrates of issues of gender inclusiveness, according to organizers, and will feature more than different 25 events. The week will run until Sept. 23 and is sponsored by the UB Institute for Research and Education on Women and Gender.
"It's an enlightening and entertaining kick-off to the academic year," event organizers Barbara Bono and Rosemary Dziak said in a press release.
Gender Week starts Monday on a scientific note. Robert Genco, recently the interim vice president for research, will discuss bone density, calcium intake and oral disease, all of which relate to women's health issues, especially osteoporosis.
Monday also brings the week's keynote from Winona LaDuke, a Native American author, activist and former Green Party vice presidential candidate.
Time magazine named LaDuke as one of America's 50 most promising leaders under the age of 40 in 1994, the year that she was arrested for protesting the logging industry's use of indigenous lands, according to DemocracyNow.org.
Patricia Shelley, assistant director for the Gender Institute, said LaDuke would inform attendees of how environmentalism, ecology, economy and gender combine for a new way of living on this earth.
LaDuke's lecture, "Recovering the Sacred: Women Remaking a Devastated World," will cover the conflict of war, community and international safety, as well as the role of indigenous women. She will make her appearance at 4 p.m. in the Center for the Arts Black Box Theater.
Tuesday events include speaker Anne Marie Pyle, a biophysics and biochemistry professor from Yale, who will be speaking about RNA and enzymes. The science-heavy program for the week marks a first in the event's history.
"I am particularly pleased to have the first Gender Week distinguished scientist seminars," Shelley said.
Beatrice Colomina of Princeton University will also speak on Tuesday about her work in the architectural field and the relationships between gender and architecture.
On Wednesday, the Cuban Theater Company will give a special performance of La Virgin Triste, or "The Sad Virgin," which tells the dramatic story of exiled Cuban writer Juana Borrero, a figure noted for her arts and letters about love and suffering, who died at 18.
UB will also be host international speakers including Ros DiProse from the University of South Wales, Australia on Thursday. Her lecture, titled "Where your people from, girl? Gender, Race and Place, Beneath Clouds," will include clips from the 2001 Ivan Sen-directed film "Beneath Clouds," which she will use to illustrate the conflicts of gender and cultural identity.
There are also several events that may be of particular interest to those who not interested in lectures, including "Disarming the Canon: Women Directors of the Film-Makers Cooperative," presented by Co-op director M.M. Serra and UB's Carolyn Koebel, an assistant professor of media studies. "Disarming" will be a presentation of eight short films that run the gauntlet of both time, from 1964-2003, and topic. Among those being presented are Serra and Jennifer Reeve's "Darling International" (1999) about the sexual fantasies of a New York metal worker, and "Spiders in Love: An Arachnorgasmic Musical," a film is described by the Austin Chronicle as "(taking) pleasure in perversity."
Also being shown this week is Marry Me, a film by Uli Gaulke & Jeannette Eggert about transnational love between a Cuban and a German.
Bono and Dziak, who are co-directors of the UB Gender Institute, said in their press release that this year's Gender Week/Gender Matters should meet its stated goal of supplying insights into the range of attention and knowledge production across the disciplines in matters of gender and sexuality.
Jennifer Robb, a senior French major, said she believes Gender Week is a great way to focus on different areas of gender that are ignored or forgotten.
"I hope the events will get the word out on issues that are awkward to discuss but most importantly, the events will educate people on difficult issues dealing with gender and sexuality," Robb said.
More information for Gender Week can be found at the Gender Institute's website: www.womenandgender.buffalo.edu.
